Trading Places
Inside views on the jobs market
from DealZone:
Investors long for UBS happy end
Die-hard UBS investors who have stayed with the bank through thick and thin are hoping new boss Oswald Gruebel (sitting) will return the Swiss icon to its former splendour thanks to a bitter medicine of thousands of new layoffs and heavy cost cuts announced on Wednesday.
But their patience is running out.
"The only reason why we are still with UBS is because hope dies last. But if this carries on, we will not tolerate it anymore," said Blandina Heyne, a UBS investor for seven years, as she and her husband came to attend the bank's annual general meeting in Zurich.
Both clients and shareholders have turned their back to Switzerland's largest bank after the crisis forced UBS to post the biggest loss in Swiss corporate history and shares plummeted to historic lows.
Shareholder anger forced former CEO Marcel Rohner to quit in February and chairman Peter Kurer (standing) was giving his last speech on Wednesday before leaving his job after just one year of what some investors say are empty promises.
"When I was little my mother used to read me one of these bedtime stories from the Grimm's brothers and she said they were the greatest fairytales ever written," shareholder Rudolph Weber says. "She got it wrong. It was Mr Kurer who wrote the greatest fairytale."
Gruebel, a no-nonsense German who once turned around UBS' rival Credit Suisse, told the shareholder assembly the bank would post yet another loss and announced thousands of job cuts.
Fresh job cuts at UBS, but new hires also
UBS, the biggest banker to the rich, announced a second round of job cuts after posting the biggest annual loss in Swiss history. The cuts to investment banking jobs come on top of 7,500 jobs that the bank has already axed as a result of the economic crisis.
It’s not all bad news, however. UBS hired nearly 400 financial advisers in the United States in the last quarter and sources have told Reuters it is aggressively poaching advisers from rivals including Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney.
If you work at UBS, tell us where the cuts are falling, what the mood is like and what severance you’re getting, if any. And given that the bank is still willing to hire in some sectors, give us some good news about where the opportunities lie.
There is a lot of talent out there and certain areas are cleaning out old word and bringing in talent from Merrill, Bear, Lehman and the like. With no bonuses this year I suspect many more will leave and there are plenty out there waiting to fill those positions.
Job Bank – Nov. 25
The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Nov. 25, linked where possible to personal profiles on LinkedIn. To inform us of other job changes, please e-mail moves@thomsonreuters.com.
STANDARD CHARTERED PLC
UK-based lender Standard Chartered Plc appointed Ebenezer Essoka as chief executive officer of its operations in South Africa. Cameroon-born Essoka, currently CEO of Standard Chartered’s west African business, will succeed Chris Low with immediate effect.
NOMURA HOLDINGS INC
Nomura today said it has appointed David Bizer as Head of Global Markets Sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa, effective immediately. Prior to his appointment, Bizer was head of fixed income sales for the same region at Lehman Brothers.
UBS
Job Bank – Nov. 21
The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Nov. 21, linked where possible to personal profiles on LinkedIn. To inform us of other job changes, please e-mail moves@thomsonreuters.com.
UBS AG
Ramesh Singh, the head of UBS AG’s asset-backed securities division has decided to step down, UBS CEO Jerker Johansson said in an internal memo. The asset-backed securities business at the Swiss banking giant will be reduced in scope. Replacing Singh, will be a group co-led by Bill Chandler, Jack McCleary and Jim Reichek.
OPPENHEIMER FUNDS, INC.
William F. Glavin, Jr. has been appointed chief executive officer of Oppenheimer Funds Inc. effective Jan. 1, 2009. He will replace John V. Murphy, currently chairman and CEO. Murphy will remain with the company and continue to serve as President and a director/trustee of each of the Oppenheimer funds until his retirement at year-end 2009. Glavin has served as Co-CEO of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (Mass Mutual), of which Oppenheimer Funds, Inc is a subsidiary, and Executive Vice- President and head of Mass Mutual’s U.S. Insurance Group.
THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
Bucking the firing trend
It’s a sad day in global finance when Deutsche Bank is poised to slash about 900 jobs and no one seems the least bit surprised. Granted, there’s stiff competition in the “shocking cutbacks” department these days. In the UK, the Lloyds/HBOS deal is inching ahead, and some expect a massive 40,000 jobs to be lost in the process.
But not everyone is on a firing spree. In fact, UBS — among those hit the hardest by the global credit meltdown — says it’s adding six senior executives to its wealth management division in Asia. True, six new jobs hardly seems like cause for celebration, but it signals an increasingly foreign concept of growth and expansion in time when contraction and cutbacks reign.
Meanwhile, State Bank of India is about to go on a hiring spree to the tune of 25,000 new jobs. The bank is cashing in on the misfortune of its competitor ICICI, which suffered a major blow when jittery depositers yanked their money from the bank in favor or safer, state-run institutions. Now State Bank stands to gain a huge slice of market share and plans to open a whopping 2,000 new branches in the coming year to keep up with its expanding customer base.
Does the latest hiring news offer a glimmer of hope? Share your thoughts below.
Job Bank – Nov.3
The following financial services industry appointments were announced on November 3, linked where possible to personal profiles on LinkedIn. To inform us of other job changes, please email moves@thomsonreuters.com.
Banks for the wealthy still hiring in Asia
New York City Comptroller William Thompson has increased his forecast for the number of securities industry workers who could be laid off in the city to 35,000 from 25,000, but banks in Asia are still looking to bulk up. Top brass speaking at the Reuters Wealth Management Summit this week said their expansion plans for Asia are largely intact.
Joseph Poon, who heads the Private Wealth Asia division of Australia’s Macquarie Group, said its recently set-up Asian private banking unit will hire another 30-35 client advisers in the next three to five years.
Marcel Kreis, head of Asia-Pacific private banking for Credit Suisse, said the credit crisis has not derailed plans to expand its private bank in Asia, where it could boost its team by as much as 80 percent in three years.
UBS is adding staff at a slower rate but is ready to pounce on experienced talent. “Even if we wanted to hire a lot of people there are not that many good people in the market,” said Kathryn Shih, chief executive for UBS’s wealth management business in the Asia-Pacific. “Normally into the second year of the crisis you start getting good people.”
Picture: Marcel Kreis, Credit Suisse Managing Director and Head of Private Banking for Asia-Pacific, speaks during an interview at the Reuters Wealth Management Summit in Singapore October 13, 2008. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash
Job Bank – Oct. 9
The following are job changes within the financial industry for Oct. 7, linked where possible to personal and company profiles on LinkedIn. To inform us of other job changes, please e-mail moves@thomsonreuters.com.
UBS INVESTMENT BANK The Swiss investment bank said Janine McGrath Shelffo will join its Investment Banking Department (IBD) as a Managing Director in its Technology, Media and Telecommunications Banking group. Prior to this assignment, Shelffo was a managing director and senior coverage banker for the media sector at Lehman Brothers, where she worked since 2004.
PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP The New York based assurance, tax and advisory services firm said John McCaffrey has been appointed leader of the U.S. Transaction Services group, and Timothy Hartnett as U.S. Private Equity Leader. McCaffrey previously headed the firm’s U.S. Private Equity group and replaces Michael Burwell, who is now the U.S. firm’s chief financial officer.
RBC CAPITAL MARKETS The Canadian bank’s investment banking arm named Peter Walraven as managing director of the firm’s U.S. Debt Capital Markets efforts for Infrastructure and Project Finance. He will be based in New York. Prior to this appointment, Walraven worked at JP Morgan, most recently as a managing director and a member of that firm’s global private placements group.
MERRILL LYNCH BANK (SUISSE) The investment bank has appointed Mark Kahnau as the new office manager of its Global Wealth Management Zurich branch.
Wall Street’s high-profile ‘job jumpers’
The New York Times’ Dealbook takes a look at some of Wall Street’s biggest movers and shakers as they have played musical chairs in the last few months:
Days after Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, it emerged that Mr. Shafir, a global cohead of mergers and acquisitions, was leaving for Citigroup. Mr. Shafir stayed long enough to help sell Lehman’s United States capital-markets business to Barclays.
As head of Lehman’s communications banking group, Mr. Young, known as Woody, was that firm’s biggest rainmaker. After abruptly leaving Lehman in early 2007, he resurfaced last month at Merrill Lynch, just a week before Merrill agreed to be sold to Bank of America.
A banker’s banker, Mr. Sarkozy, the halfbrother of the French president, brokered transactions as joint global head of UBS’s financial institutions group. In March, he became co-head of the global financial services group at Carlyle Group, the private equity giant.
In his 22 years at Goldman Sachs, Mr. Kraus rose as high as co-head of its investment management division. But in May, he left to become head of strategy at Merrill Lynch, where another Goldman alum, John Thain, had recently taken the helm.
As chief financial officer at Lehman Brothers, she was one of Wall Street’s most powerful women. But she was demoted after her defense of the firm’s health failed to comfort skittish investors. In July, she jumped to Credit Suisse to run its global hedge fund business.
Mr. Schwartz became chief executive at Bear Stearns a few months before its sale to JPMorgan Chase & Company. He decided in July to leave JPMorgan and has not announced his next move. He has reportedly talked to investment banks and private equity firms.
Photo: Children play musical chairs after taking part in a role play exercise during an induction course at Mexico City’s stock market July 15, 2005. Mexico City’s stock market holds an induction course for children who’s parents would like them to learn the basics of market capitalism during their summer holidays. REUTERS/Andrew Winning
If we get any closer to a depression these people won’t be jumping jobs, they’ll be jumping buildings.
Job Bank – Sep. 25
The following are job changes within the financial industry for September 23, linked where possible to profiles on LinkedIn. To inform us of other job changes, please e-mail moves@thomsonreuters.com.
UBS The Swiss bank has hired former Bear Stearns executive Jeffrey Mayer as joint head of the fixed income, currencies and commodities business. Mayer will be based in New York and Stamford.
ORRICK, HERRINGTON & SUTCLIFFE The law firm has hired Elisabeth Gaunt from Denton Wilde Sapte as a partner in its global finance practice in London.
GCA SAVVIAN GROUP The Tokyo-based mergers and acquisition advisory firm hired Hirofumi Imaji as a partner at Mezzanine Corp, its LBO financing unit, effective Oct. 1. He was previously with Citigroup Inc .
NAVIGATORS GROUP INC The insurance holding company hired Paul Hennessy as president of Navigators Holdings (UK) Ltd.
UCBH HOLDINGS INC The bank holding company appointed Qingyuan Wan as a new member of the board. Wan served as director of the board office of China Minsheng Banking Corp Ltd since October 2007.
AMHERST SECURITIES GROUP The privately held broker-dealer that specializes in residential mortgage-backed securities has hired six sales and trading staffers. The six all join from different firms, including Merrill Lynch & Co Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Countrywide Capital Markets.
